Gender-Specific Functional Foods and Supplements
Do gender-specific functional foods and supplements address real needs, i.e., actual gender differences regarding what should be consumed? Or are they just a marketing ploy to sell more nutraceuticals?
The answer is that gender-specific functional foods and supplements are not just a marketing ploy—the right targeted products can address legitimate issues. As researchers continue to learn about how the biological differences between men and women affect nutritional requirements, it is clear that nutraceutical companies can play a major role in creating products that address these needs.
Not only do men and women have differing needs for specific nutrients, there are also differences in how members of each gender process these nutrients once they are ingested. For example, there are gender differences in lipoprotein metabolism1. Gender-specific products can be formulated to address both of these issues.
The rise of functional foods
The Mayo Clinic defines functional foods as “foods that have a potentially positive effect on health beyond basic nutrition,” and points out that “a familiar example of a functional food is oatmeal because it contains soluble fiber that can help lower cholesterol levels2.” In the nutraceuticals industry, “functional foods” often refers to foods that have been specifically formulated to provide health benefits. For example, functional chocolate products are available that purport to ease menopausal symptoms for women.
One of the reasons for the increase in popularity of functional foods is that consumers see adding functional foods to their diet as being just a “small adjustment” to their lifestyle—which is important because convenience is important for most consumers3. In other words, people will incorporate functional foods into their lives because doing so is easy.
It should be noted that when marketing functional foods, manufacturers must be careful to avoid making any misleading or unproven claims regarding the food’s nutritional content as well as its potential effects on health, disease or body function. In the U.S., these claims are all regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This includes claims made about any food (not just those specially-formulated as “functional”) regarding the role of dietary fiber in supporting heart health, the benefits of a diet that is low in sodium or fat, and so forth.
Look better, feel better
Euromonitor reports that the demand for functional foods meant to improve the consumer’s appearance is growing4. Consequently, many antioxidant-related functional foods are now marketing their products’ skin care benefits as well. While the demand for functional foods meant to improve appearance seems to be higher for women than men, Euromonitor’s 2021 Beauty Survey revealed that thinning hair and hair loss is a concern for all genders. Because one of the most common causes of thinning hair and hair loss is hormones, it only makes sense that functional foods and supplements meant to address this problem should be gender-specific. After all, hormones vary tremendously by gender.
Women’s health concerns are also seen as an excellent opportunity in the nutraceuticals space. Gender-specific functional foods and supplements aimed at making women feel better by addressing the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and menopause, and by aiding with fertility, are gaining traction.
Gender-specific multivitamins
In the world of gender-specific supplements, the product category that is probably most familiar to consumers is multivitamins. Multivitamins are not just available by gender, they’re available by gender and age. One set of products targets younger men and women, while other multivitamins claim to be made specifically for men or women over the age of about 50.
Why are these gender-specific products necessary? Because men and women have different nutritional needs, and these needs change as they age. In the U.S. the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) guidelines for intake of various vitamins and minerals reflects this.
For example, let’s look at the RDAs for iron and calcium. To avoid vitamin deficiency, premenopausal women, who lose blood through their monthly periods, are advised to consume 18 mg of iron each day. This drops to 8 mg per day for both men and postmenopausal women. Meanwhile, the RDA for calcium is 1,000 mg per day for women ages 18 to 50 and men ages 18 to 70, while the RDA for women over 51 is 1,200 mg of calcium per day. Whether they are capsules, gummies or in some other delivery format, multivitamins that are formulated based on age and gender can account for these differences.
Capsules are an excellent delivery system for functional supplements
Two-piece hard capsules—especially those made of HPMC, which are vegetarian—offer many benefits for nutraceutical products. These include:
Ease
Although functional foods are growing in popularity, compliance with a daily supplementation regimen is simply easier with pills. Capsules are also easy to ship, which makes them ideal for the growing popularity of subscription-based sales of multi-vitamins and other supplements.
Flexibility
Capsules can hold a mix of components, such as powders, granules, beads, tablets and liquids.
Control
With capsules consumers know they are getting a very specific dosage of the given supplement. Dosage control is extremely hard to control in functional foods, especially because if the food is appealing consumers will be tempted to eat more than the recommended dose.
To learn more about the benefits of HPMC capsules for nutraceutical products, click here.
Reference
1 Nutrition Insight, “Sex matters: Gender-specific science advances as demand for tailored nutrition surges”
2 Mayo Clinic, “I’ve heard the term ‘functional foods,’ but I don’t know what it means. Can you explain?”
3 Topolska, K., Florkiewicz, A and Filipiak-Florkiewicz, A, “Functional Food—Consumer Motivations and Expectations,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, May 17, 2021.
4 Matsunaga, Megumi, The Rise of Ingestible Beauty and Gender-Specific Functional Food, Euromonitor, January 28, 2022
